Four Nations Competition

FOUR NATIONS COMPETITION

The Four Nations Competition was originally conceived to be a friendly inter photographic society competition and serves as a means of promoting a higher level of photography. This competition has been in existence for the past 20 years.

The participating photographic societies are:

  1. Australian Photographic Society
  2. Canadian Association For Photographic Art
  3. Photographic Society of New Zealand
  4. Photographic Society of South Africa

Each participating society contributes 80 images from 80 different photographs. The 80 submitted images are grouped into four categories:

  1. Monochrome (15 images),
  2. Nature (15 images),
  3. Open Theme (35 images)
  4. My Country (15 images).

The Monochrome and Nature categories comply to the strict specifications established by the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (FIAP). Whereas, the Open Theme and My Country categories permit unrestricted editing in the creation and enhancement of the submitted image.

Each society (country) selects their top images in each of the four categories and submits them to the competition host on June 24 of each year.

Each year, CAPA conducts 8 to 12 national photo competitions with entrants coming from over 1,000 CAPA members and photographers from over 100 camera clubs across Canada.

CAPA selects the top images from each of its competition and has an independent judging panel to re-score the images to select the very best images for CAPA’s submission into the Four Nations competition.

The competition host for each yearly competition rotates between the participating societies. Three internationally recognized judges from a country other than the participating countries view and score the images.

A gold medal e-certificate is awarded to a photographer who receives the highest scoring image in each category. Three honourable mention e-certificates are also awarded for each category. The society which scores the highest cumulate total for all four categories is declared the winner of the competition.

2026 Results

This annual inter-photo society event brings together four prestigious photography societies:  the Australian Photographic Society, the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA), the Photographic Society of New Zealand, and the Photographic Society of South Africa.  Each society submits 8 top images for the competition.

This year, the Photographic Society of South Africa hosted this inter-society competition, and the panel of judges were:

  • Chen Ziaoyue (China)
  • Zhao Dongming (China)
  • Wu Qi (China)

OVERALL RESULTS

  • 1st – Photographic Society of South Africa (2600 points)
  • 2nd – Photographic Society of New Zealand (2594 points)
  • 3rd – Australian Photographic Society (2554 points)
  • 4th – Canadian Association for Photographic Arts – CAPA (2546 points)

COLOUR RESULTS

  • 1st – Photographic Society of South Africa (1153 points)
  • 2nd – Photographic Society of New Zealand (1124 points)
  • 3rd – Australian Photographic Society (1121 points)
  • 4th – Canadian Association for Photographic Arts – CAPA (1111 points)

MONOCHROME RESULTS

  • 1st – Photographic Society of New Zealand (508 points)
  • 2nd – Photographic Society of South Africa (507 points)
  • 3rd – Australian Photographic Society (502 points)
  • 4th – Canadian Association for Photographic Arts – CAPA (496 points)

NATURE RESULTS

  • 1st – Photographic Society of South Africa (498 points)
  • 2nd – Canadian Association for Photographic Art – CAPA (485 points)
  • 3rd – Australian Photographic Society (467 points)
  • 4th – Photographic Society of New Zealand (464 points)

OUR COUNTRY RESULTS

  • 1st – Photographic Society of New Zealand (498 points)
  • 2nd – Australian Photographic Society (464 points)
  • 3rd – Canadian Association for Photographic Arts – CAPA (454 points)
  • 4th – Photographic Society of South Africa (442 points)

CAPA Team Canada Awards:

Our Country - Gold Medal - Edith Dupuis - 'Le tournis Canadien'
Our Country - Honourable Mention - Lisa Bokelman - 'Weathering the Storm in Style'
Open Colour - Honourable Mention - Michael Winsor - 'Feathers of Fire'
Monochrome - Honourable Mention - Kai Sun Law - 'Tumble'
Nature - Honourable Mention - Germain Lachance - 'Garde mangé bien garnie'
Nature - Honourable Mention - Phillip Chang - 'Lake Magadi'

Past Results